Sorry guys, I've taken a new job and have been quite busy of late. I think I'd better resign from this game rather than rejoining after this long absence; I've no idea where we are even up to and I've been out of it for so long -- not to mention that my faithful ally completely undid my painstakingly organized Italian army naming scheme! I went to all the trouble of learning ordinal numbers in Italian for that Des and came back to find my armies' units scattered to the winds at the whims of my German allies. Ah well.

Anyway, best of luck guys, hope it doesn't leave you too much in the lurch, but honestly, Italy was done from day 1 when the sneak attack struck. Realistically, I just don't see that that could've played out that way (the UK Copenhagened my fleet, as they did to the Danes in the 19th century), but I don't think that was even remotely close to a plausible course of action for the Brits to have taken in autumn 39', particularly as Italy was in no way going to join the war anytime soon. Moreover, afterwards, Italy would surely not have joined up with team Axis, but sought to maintain peace in light of the devastating damage done to the fleet, not run round Africa to try and make it to a German port. *None* of Italy's ships had the range to make that sort of journey, even the Littorios.

Obviously it was a perfectly legal move within the rules; but it did put us in a situation that was wildly ahistorical to the extent that it really made it pointless for Italy; especially as it strikes me as obvious that the reaction would be to maintain neutrality, not go on an impossible death ride thereafter.

I think I'm just also exasperated with the limits of AoD and while I love the game, it has some serious deficiencies in realism -- I want to be able to make ahistorical choices, yes, but within the confines of what was plausible at the time. And this is not an accusation, as obviously within the limits of the game I thought making such strategic choices was a good idea myself. So, the idea of my Soviets being able to carry 12 divisions to conquer the DEI strains credulity well beyond the breaking point, when as I mentioned the IJN itself in early 42' could only just carry a single division to Rangoon -- and they were a maritime power!

The other maddening shortcomings in how naval combat is modelled and the absurd build times associated with capital ships in particular further alienate me and make me want to seek another game to foster a better simulation.

Having said that, I've very much enjoyed strategizing and being kept on my toes in the games with you guys; and I regret that having to play at such an early hour so often left me at a serious disadvantage in terms of sleep deprivation beforehand, being utterly ill-prepared and half awake when the UK struck this time was too similar to my half-awake (and admittedly still drunk from the previous night) clobbering in Barbarossa last time (though at least that one was arguably a little role-playing). So even with those shortcomings, I'm just playing poorly myself and those points combined suggest that I ought to step back.

All the best gents, I'll probably keep an eye out to see how things unfold.

I really hope that does not refrain you from participating in future campaigns, where AoD will slowly fix many of its bugs and run much much faster and ctd-free (just to make the sessions less sleepy). Also, and in case before this campaign ends you get holidays or alike, maybe you want to participate subbing some stuff even if just to keep track on the strategical trends on WPO: Your presence around should be just like the names of the Italian Regiments, maybe not as planned, but always keeping some of its great original style even as time passes by.

As Des mentioned, AoD has been getting alot of new patches that have ironed out alot of bugs and issues, which should make the game much more enjoyable in future games.

What comes to the ship building times, although it is unlikely the AoD dev team does anything about those, it does not mean that Imp cant be the one to sort those ones out. There has been discussion in the past about increasing the buildtime but lowering the cost to make things more realistic. I advocate such changes, but what has been keeping me from doing it is the sheer amount of balancing and research needed to ensure everything remain fair yet realistic. Perhaps we can all brainstorm them at some inter-game period.

Greatest enemy of realism in this game is the player hindsight. We all know whats coming, and we do everything in our power to be fully prepared for it, which, as we all know, wasnt quite the case in reality. Thats something we cant eradicate, and we can just try to balance things out so that its fair and everybody enjoy playing their country.

Prince, I second what Jar and Des said and join them in the hope that you will join us for our next game. I fully understand that the new job and the long break for your US trip makes continuing with this game unreasonable. Enjoy your summer, get up to speed with the new job and plan on joining us when this game ends. We could also use your input when we up date the rules and Jar reworks his IMP.

Sorry guys, I've taken a new job and have been quite busy of late. I think I'd better resign from this game rather than rejoining after this long absence; I've no idea where we are even up to and I've been out of it for so long -- not to mention that my faithful ally completely undid my painstakingly organized Italian army naming scheme! I went to all the trouble of learning ordinal numbers in Italian for that Des and came back to find my armies' units scattered to the winds at the whims of my German allies. Ah well.
All the best gents, I'll probably keep an eye out to see how things unfold.

I've been so caught up with the third baby that I haven't had time to read the forums. (btw, sorry guys for my being late last night, I just forgot to check the time)
I'm sorry to see you go Prince, you are a valuable player and I hope in time you will reconsider. Perhaps just sub like Bonarpte is doing due to time constraints.
I also might make a trip to New Zealand in 2020, I'll drop you a message when I know the details, perhaps we can grab a beer.

“The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other guy die for his.”
Gen. George S. Patton

I'm also sorry to see Prince go. Prince, you've been great to wake up so early to join us. I certainly couldn't have done it so regularly as you have!

In regards to your comments on AoD, as Jarski's said, the ship building times are completely customizable so we could trial realistic build times & see the result for one campaign. We might be able to tweak the amphibious assault penalty to make it even harder to use more then 3-4 divs on landing (the naval doctrines increase the limit, so we could even reduce the limit).